I'm loving the combat in this game. I'm pointing that out because I didn't really expect it. Obviously the narrative and presentation are brilliant, but I expected that. The story might be a tad cliche, but it's executed so well I don't care.

So back to the combat. It's amazing how they can make a game that clearly builds off a lot of the same pieces Uncharted used but feels so different. Honestly, combat in Uncharted was not that great. Lot's of popping out of cover to take out swarms of mooks. Typical third person shooter BS. Encounters in The Last of Us are smaller scale but so much more deadly. Every bullet is precious so going in guns blazing is usually the worst thing you can do. You want to use stealth combined with all the little tools at your disposal to take out as many guys as possible first. It all feels very tactical. You have limited resources and have to carefully choose how to use them. But even if you do get spotted it's not like that's game over. It is possible to get through encounters with brute force, just difficult. And you feel the pain for not using your resources with maximum efficiency. Even so, it always feels possible to keep going. I do worry that the emphasis of limited resources could lead to pyrrhic victories, but it seems like there's always enough in the environment to scrap something together.

PS: Anyone else notice that the trophies for this game are hard as heck? I've put a good 6 hours in already and haven't earned a single trophy...

I'm seeing a lot of glitches, Lard. I've glitched through walls, had enemies break my stranglehold for a brief second and come back, long lag times on saves, and lots of graphical glitches when something is happening about twenty feet away from Joel. I'm actually surprised given how polished the Uncharted games were.

Damn, that is rough Rob. I hope I don't run into any glitches because that is one thing that turns me off any game hardcore. Graphical glitches and stuff anyway if it's a system glitch like W-Item I make note, but it doesn't break my experience. You guys are lucky bastards I still have to wait to play it, since I'm borrowing it from a friend. Earliest I'll get it is Tuesday.

I didn't have any issues with the... ...half hour I played. D: I could see a game like this being tough for the PS3 to output; I'm sure it's loading a lot. Ass Creed was a lot of fun for glitches, I think the amount it loaded caused programming hiccups to happen everywhere.

Do you have an older system, P.R.??

Also, is anyone playing with the PS headphones? Apparently good for the superman-hearing parts of the game.